Recorded as Louth, Louthe, Lowth, Loweth and possibly others, this is an early medieval English surname. It is locational from the town of Louth in the county of Lincolnshire. The derivation of the town name and hence the later surname, is from the Olde English and Scandinavian (Viking) pre 7th century "luda", the word being imitational for a "loud" river. As the area around Louth is fenland and very flat, and the likliehood of a river being "loud" is rather remote. This suggests that the word is borrowed from some other place where the river was more "luda"! The earliest recordings of the placename date back to the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of the year 730, when reference is made to "Hludensis Monasterium", or the monastery on the Hlud. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the town name is given as "Lude", the modern spelling being several centuries later. Early examples of the surname recording taken from the authentic registers of the period include John de Luda in the Hundred Rolls of Lincoln in 1273, and Eva Louth of Somerset in the Hundred Rolls of that county in 1327. Susan Louthe was christened at Belchford, in 1591, and Robert Lowth at Stickney in 1598. Both these villages being in Lincolnshire.The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Luda, 1272, in the Curia Regis rolls of the city of York, Yorkshire,during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as "The hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307.

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